Palestinian detainee says he was tortured in Israeli detention center

Tarek Rabie Safi, a freed Palestinian prisoner, is carried as he is greeted after being released by Israel as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal in Gaza in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 15, 2025. (Reuters)
1 / 3
Tarek Rabie Safi, a freed Palestinian prisoner, is carried as he is greeted after being released by Israel as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal in Gaza in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 15, 2025. (Reuters)
A woman hugs the wife of Tarek Rabie Safi, a freed Palestinian prisoner released by Israel as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal in Gaza, in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza Strip, February 15, 2025. (Reuters)
2 / 3
A woman hugs the wife of Tarek Rabie Safi, a freed Palestinian prisoner released by Israel as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal in Gaza, in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza Strip, February 15, 2025. (Reuters)
Tarek Rabie Safi, a freed Palestinian prisoner, hugs his daughter after being released by Israel as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal in Gaza in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 15, 2025. (Reuters)
3 / 3
Tarek Rabie Safi, a freed Palestinian prisoner, hugs his daughter after being released by Israel as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal in Gaza in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 15, 2025. (Reuters)
Short Url
Updated 17 February 2025
Follow

Palestinian detainee says he was tortured in Israeli detention center

Tarek Rabie Safi, a freed Palestinian prisoner, is carried as he is greeted after being released by Israel.
  • “(There was) no (decent) food, or drinks, or (medical) treatment. My arm was broken, and they did not treat me, and they did not get me checked by a doctor”: Safi

KHAN YOUNIS: Palestinian medic and ambulance worker Tarek Rabie Safi, freed from an Israeli jail as part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, said he was underfed and abused during almost a year in captivity.
Safi, a 39-year-old father of two, was released along with 368 other Palestinian detainees on Saturday, after Hamas freed three Israeli hostages from Gaza.
Palestinian prisoners and Israeli hostages have both complained of harsh treatment in the hands of their captors.
“I was held by the Israeli army in the Gaza ‘envelop’, which is Sde Teiman where I stayed for four months (and I was subjected to) torture of our bodies (physical torture) and hunger,” a gaunt-looking Safi said.
“(There was) no (decent) food, or drinks, or (medical) treatment. My arm was broken, and they did not treat me, and they did not get me checked by a doctor.”
The Israeli military rejected the claims in an emailed response to Reuters’ queries, saying detainees are given food and drink regularly and have access to medical care, and that if necessary, they are transferred to a medical facility with advanced capabilities.
Safi, who was detained in March last year near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said a detainee who was in the same room with him had died as a result of his treatment.
“A young man who was with me was martyred, Mussab Haniyeh, may God have mercy on him, in the same room. This young man was strong, but due to the lack of food, lack of drinks and frequent torture, he was martyred in front of our eyes,” Safi said.
After four months in the detention center, Safi was moved to other Israeli jails until his release in Khan Younis, where he was reunited with his family in emotional scenes.
The Israeli military said it is aware of incidents of detainee deaths, but cannot comment since investigations are pending.
The Palestinian Prisoner Association, which documents Israeli detentions of Palestinians, said that Israel is carrying out “systematic crimes and revenge attacks” against prisoners, most recently in the Israeli-occupied West Bank’s Ofer prison.
Abdullah Al-Zaghari, head of the association, said that the group had documented horrific testimonies, including severe beatings and shackling prisoners for days and weeks without food or water.
Reuters is unable to independently confirm the reports.
Human rights group Amnesty International said last year that 27 released detainees it had interviewed consistently described being subjected to torture on at least one occasion during their arrest.


Iraqi PM says Islamic State leader for Iraq and Syria killed

Updated 8 sec ago
Follow

Iraqi PM says Islamic State leader for Iraq and Syria killed

Iraqi PM says Islamic State leader for Iraq and Syria killed
Iraqi security forces and the US-led coalition killed Abdullah Maki Musleh Al-Rifai

BAGHDAD: The leader of Daesh in Iraq and Syria, “considered one of the most dangerous terrorist in Iraq and the world,” has been killed, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said on Friday.
Iraqi security forces, together with US-led coalition fighting the militant group, killed Abdullah Maki Musleh Al-Rifai, known as Abu Khadija, Sudani added.

The leader of Daesh in Iraq and Syria, “considered one of the most dangerous terrorist in Iraq and the world,” has been killed, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said on Friday. (AFP/File)

A Libyan town comes together to make a beloved Ramadan dish

A Libyan town comes together to make a beloved Ramadan dish
Updated 9 min 5 sec ago
Follow

A Libyan town comes together to make a beloved Ramadan dish

A Libyan town comes together to make a beloved Ramadan dish
  • In Tajoura, just east of Libya ‘s capital of Tripoli, it’s the perfect food for iftar
  • Tajoura residents of all ages are eager to help with roles from making the bread

TRIPOLI: Every year during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a Libyan town comes together to prepare — and share — one of their all-time favorite dishes: bazin.
In Tajoura, just east of Libya ‘s capital of Tripoli, it’s the perfect food for iftar, the evening meal when Muslims break the dawn-to-dusk fasting of Ramadan.
Savory and rich, bazin is usually made of unleavened barley flour and served with a rich stew full of vegetables and — hopefully — mutton. If those aren’t available, which they often haven’t been in the past decade and a half due to Libya’s violence and turmoil, a simple tomato sauce will do.
Preparing it is a joint effort, and Tajoura residents of all ages are eager to help with roles from making the bread, handing it out to the poor or donating ingredients to the community.
Typically, the men of Tajoura volunteer to make the bread in a makeshift communal kitchen, using long wooden sticks to stir the barley flour water in large pots to make the dough.
Others then knead the dough, shaping it into large clumps that look a bit like giant dumplings, to be baked or steamed. Once ready, other volunteers hand out bazin to a people lined up outside, who eagerly wait to take it home for iftar.
Ramadan is a time of intense prayers, charity and spirituality.
And in Tajoura, it’s also time for bazin.
This photo gallery by Yousef Murad was curated by Amr Nabil in Cairo.


Syrian Druze cross armistice line for pilgrimage to Israel

Syrian Druze cross armistice line for pilgrimage to Israel
Updated 14 March 2025
Follow

Syrian Druze cross armistice line for pilgrimage to Israel

Syrian Druze cross armistice line for pilgrimage to Israel
  • Followers of the esoteric monotheistic faith are mainly divided between Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights
  • The Druze account for about three percent of Syria’s population and are heavily concentrated in the southern province of Sweida
MAJDAL SHAMS: Dozens of Syrian Druze clerics crossed the armistice line on the Golan Heights into Israel on Friday for their community’s first pilgrimage to a revered shrine in decades.
On board three buses escorted by Israeli military vehicles, the clerics crossed at Majdal Shams in the Golan, and headed to northern Israel.
According to a source close to the group, the delegation of around 60 clerics is due to meet the spiritual leader of Israel’s Druze community, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, in northern Israel.
They are then set to head to the tomb of Nabi Shuaib in the Galilee — the most important religious site for the Druze.
Followers of the esoteric monotheistic faith are mainly divided between Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
A source close to the delegation said that the visit followed an invitation from the Druze community in Israel, but that it had been met with “strong opposition” from other Druze in Syria.
The Druze account for about three percent of Syria’s population and are heavily concentrated in the southern province of Sweida.
In Israel and the occupied Golan Heights, there are around 150,000 Druze, with most of those living in Israel holding Israeli citizenship and serving in the army.
However, of the some 23,000 living in the occupied Golan Heights, most do not hold Israeli citizenship and still see themselves as Syrian nationals.
Israel seized much of the strategic Golan Heights from Syria in a war in 1967, later annexing the area in 1981 in a move largely unrecognized by the international community.
The pilgrimage comes as Israel has voiced support for Syria’s Druze and mistrust of the country’s new leaders.
Following the ouster of longtime Syrian president Bashar Assad in December, Israel carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syria and sent troops into the demilitarised buffer zone of the Golan in southwest Syria.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said on Thursday that 10,000 humanitarian aid packages had been sent to “the Druze community in battle areas of Syria” over the past few weeks.
“Israel has a bold alliance with our Druze brothers and sisters,” he told journalists.
During a visit to military outposts in the UN-patrolled buffer zone between Israel and Syria on Tuesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel would remain in the area and ensure the protection of the Druze.
In early March, following a deadly clash between government-linked forces and Druze fighters in the suburbs of Damascus, Katz said his country would not allow Syria’s new rulers “to harm the Druze.”
Druze leaders immediately rejected Katz’s warning and declared their loyalty to a united Syria.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that southern Syria must be completely demilitarised, warning that his government would not accept the presence of the forces of the new Islamist-led government near its territory.

Hamas says it will release a US-Israeli hostage and 4 bodies but Israel expresses immediate doubt

Hamas says it will release a US-Israeli hostage and 4 bodies but Israel expresses immediate doubt
Updated 33 min 37 sec ago
Follow

Hamas says it will release a US-Israeli hostage and 4 bodies but Israel expresses immediate doubt

Hamas says it will release a US-Israeli hostage and 4 bodies but Israel expresses immediate doubt
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office cast doubt on the offer
  • The militant group in the Gaza Strip did not immediately specify when the release of soldier Edan Alexander and the four bodies would occur

JERUSALEM: Hamas said on Friday it has accepted a proposal from mediators to release one living American-Israeli hostage and the bodies of four dual-nationals who had died in captivity.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office cast doubt on the offer, accusing Hamas of trying to manipulate talks underway in Qatar on the next stage of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
The militant group in the Gaza Strip did not immediately specify when the release of soldier Edan Alexander and the four bodies would occur — or what it expected to get in return.
Alexander was 19 when he was abducted from his base on the border with Gaza in southern Israel during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023 that sparked the war.
It was not clear which mediators had proposed the release to Hamas. The United States, led by the Trump administration’s hostage envoy Steve Witkoff, has been pushing for a proposal that would extend the truce and see a limited number of hostage for prisoner exchanges.
Following the Hamas statement, Netanyahu’s office said Israel had “accepted the Witkoff outline and showed flexibility,” but said that “Hamas is refusing and will not budge from its positions.”
“At the same time, it continues to use manipulation and psychological warfare — the reports about Hamas’ willingness to release American hostages are intended to sabotage the negotiations,” the prime minister’s office said.
It added that Netanyahu would convene his ministerial team on Saturday night to receive a detailed report from the negotiation team and “decide on the next steps for the release of hostages.”
The first phase of the ceasefire ended two weeks ago.
The White House last week made a surprise announcement, saying that American officials had engaged in “ongoing talks and discussions” with Hamas officials, stepping away from a long-held US policy of not directly engaging with the militant group. That prompted a terse response from Netanyahu’s office.
It was not immediately clear whether those talks were at all linked to Hamas’ Friday announcement about the release of the American hostage.
In a separate statement, Hamas official Husam Badran reaffirmed what he said was Hamas’ commitment to fully implementing the ceasefire agreement in all its phases, warning that any Israeli deviation from the terms would return negotiations to square one.
The ceasefire has paused the deadliest and most destructive fighting ever between Israel and Hamas. The first phase allowed the return of 25 living hostages and the remains of eight others in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli forces have withdrawn to buffer zones inside Gaza, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza for the first time since early in the war, and hundreds of trucks of aid entered per day until Israel suspended supplies.
Israel has been pressing Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for an extension of the first phase, and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.
Two weeks ago, Israel cut off all supplies to Gaza and its more than 2 million people as it pressed Hamas to agree. The militant group has said that the move would affect the remaining hostages as well.
Hamas wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which would see the release of remaining hostages from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lasting peace.
The militant group said with support cut off to Gaza, some 80 percent of the population has now lost access to food sources, with aid distribution halted and markets running out of supplies, while 90 percent are unable to access clean drinking water.
In Jerusalem, some 80,000 Muslim worshippers prayed on Friday at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound for the second week of Ramadan, according to the Islamic Trust, which monitors the site. Israel is tightly controlling access, allowing only men over 55 and women over 50 to enter from the occupied territory for the prayers.
“The conditions are extremely difficult,” said Yousef Badeen, a Palestinian who had left the southern West Bank city of Hebron at dawn to make it to Jerusalem, said. “We wish they will open it for good.”
Hamas accused Israel of escalating a “religious war” against Palestinians with what it called the “systematic targeting of Muslim religious practices” through its restrictions at Al-Aqsa mosque.


Sudan paramilitary shelling kills six in key city: medic

Sudan paramilitary shelling kills six in key city: medic
Updated 14 March 2025
Follow

Sudan paramilitary shelling kills six in key city: medic

Sudan paramilitary shelling kills six in key city: medic
  • El-Obeid has been under relentless bombardment for eight consecutive days by the paramilitary forces
  • The war has torn Sudan apart, with the RSF tightening its grip on Darfur and parts of the south

PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Sudanese paramilitary shelling of El-Obeid on Friday killed six people, including a child, a doctor said, just weeks after the army broke a prolonged siege of the key southern city.
El-Obeid, the state capital of North Kordofan, has been under relentless bombardment for eight consecutive days by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been locked in a devastating conflict with the army since April 2023.
A doctor at the city’s main hospital, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity for safety reasons, said shelling also wounded eight civilians on Thursday evening and early Friday morning.
On Sunday, nine civilians were killed and 21 others were wounded.
For more than a week, residents have endured heavy bombardment from the RSF, which has been trying to reclaim ground lost to the army with attacks from the north and east.
Last month, Sudan’s military managed to end a nearly two-year RSF siege on El-Obeid, a key crossroads linking Khartoum to Darfur in the west.
The war has torn Sudan apart, with the RSF tightening its grip on Darfur and parts of the south, while the army controls the north and east.
In recent weeks, the army has clawed back large swathes of Khartoum and central Sudan.
What began as a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo turned into the world’s largest displacement and huger crisis.
The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives, uprooted more than 12 million and pushed the country to the brink of famine.